When Lincoln was first inaugurated

f f f f t M7\R.Ch ¥ ¥ \e>J7 ¥ ¥ V ¥

Ft $ Y&f*

. '«

l THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA

TEN CENTS

iNTROUUl

A S I FIRST saw them, Mr. Lincoln was a tall, lank, gawky,
ugly, country lawyer, his ill-proportioned, lantern-
red face relieved by a line forehead, and by large, solemn,
>t smile with his wide mouth,

jawed fact

ri\r< country was in a condition that the present

'eSSjsbS generation cannot realize when Abraham
Lincoln, President-elect, started from his little
wooden cottage. at Springfield, Illinois, to
occupy the While House at Washington.
Six of the Southern States had seceded from
the Union, had organized a provisional
1 Government at Montgomery, Alabama, and
had elected Jefferson Davis. President and Alexander IT.
Stephens Vice-President Commissioners from South
Carolina were demanding from tlfe Government the sur-
render of Port Sumter. A Peace Congress, comoosed of
representatives of most of the States, and presided over by
ex-President Tyler, was framing abortive compromises,
and keeping several doubtful States, such as Virginia
and Texas, from seceding immediately. The United
States Mint and Custom House at New Orleans had been
seized by the secessionists. Rhode Island had voted
in the Peace Conference for the eternal preservation of
negro slavery south of latitude s6° 30', and for com-
pensation for slaves that might be freed by violence.
Business men in Philadelphia and New York were calcu-
lating whether they could better afford to lose their
Southern or their Northern trade. The Democratic party
was divided and distracted. The new Republican party
was more anxious about its responsibilities than trium-
phant over its first success. The whole nation was in
disorder and confusion.

*

LINCOLN, who concealed a very serious mind under the
drolleries of a comic story-teller, was not without
experience in National affairs. After serving for several
terms in the Legislature of Illinois he had been elected
to Congress ; had won a reputation as a humorist ; had
been introduced by Senntor Seward to many prominent
people ; had lectured in New York and Boston, and had
been awakened by Senator Sumner to the injustice of
slavery and the imminence of the irrepressible conflict
between patriotism and property in man. It was with a
sad heart and a disturbed mind that he left the home
where he had been " Honest old Abe” since boyhood, to
tour through Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania on his way to his inauguration ; but he
assumed a smiling face and a jovial manner, and his slock
of stories never failed from Springfield to Harrisburg.

Most of the journey was exceedingly monotonous. At
every station a party of local politicians came on the train.
Several political leaders of National reputation and a
few newspaper reporters came through in the special
car. There was no privacy for Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln,
except when they went into their sleeping compartment.
Everybody walked in or out, and talked or listened as lie
pleased. There was no ceremony, and Mr. Lincoln did
not seem to care to inspire any personal respect, l-k-
told stories to the delegations that boarded the car, and

the delegates told stories to him. Occasionally, when
the train stopped at a city or large town, he would go out
on the back platform and begin a speech, which was soon
interrupted by the engineer, who thought more of the
time-table than of the utterances of the President-elect.

There was
began to
cut off by tl:
tell me the ei
“Well." h
"these continual stop-
pages remind me of a
drive I once took to
attend a convention
at which f was to be
nominated for the

: the

I

drove the slowei
went, and when I
reached my destina-
tion I found that the
convention had nomi-
nated my opponent
and adjourned. All
the way back 1 kept
thinking what such a
horse could be good
for, and when I drove
up to the stable 1
asked its owner the
question.

fu

ral, I

reckon.1

"‘No, my friend,'
I replied, ‘ never hire
that horse for a bury-
ing party ! 1

" ' Why not?' says
he.

" ‘ Because,' says I,
as serious as a Judge,
‘if that horse pulls the
hearse the Day of
judgment will get
here before the corpse
strikes the grave-
yard ! ’

the !

with

Journal. These articles "ill portray a succession ot the most con-
jpicuous popular cnlhusinjnia which America has wilncsscd during Ihc
past fifty years. The eTcatcsi potentates, statesmen, orators, preachers

and songstresses will be Ihc central figure - j "

began in the JOUR! ' " '

If they
keep on stopping at
every station for me
to make a speech,
this funeral will never
reach Washington ! ”

who had done her 1
to talk about it. Long years afterward I found that Mr.
Lincoln had grown with the great events of the Civil War,
and that he had attained the dignity and impressiveness
of a demigod. But at first sight he justified the •■xclama-
tions of Senator Douglas, who had been his friend from
boyhood, though opposed to him in politics, and who
used to mutter in his sleep, when somewhat overcome by
the hospitalities on the train : "Oh, Lord I Abe Lincoln
the President of the United States ! Oh, Lord ! Abe
Lincoln a President ! Ha ! Ha ! Ha ! "

When we arrived at New York City, by the Hudson
River Railroad — the station was then on Thirtieth Street —
there was a consultation about what was to be said in
reply to Mayor Fernando Wood, who already had a rep-

hows that
breaking off of
back-platform
speeches along the
route had probably
been prearranged.
Mr. Lincoln had noth-
ing to say to the
American people
until his inaugural
address.

THE train stopped ;

thr

gli

windows immense
crowds could be seen;
the cheering drowned
the blowing off steam
of the locomotive.
Then Mrs. Lincoln
opened her hand bag

" Abraiiarr

fix yot
these

up .

oiks.

"Do 1 look nice
now, mother?” he
affectionately asked.

"Well, you'll do.
Abraham,'' replied
Mrs. Lincoln crit-
ically. So he kissed
her and lifted her
down frotn the seat,

2T5

ir Wood, courtly
suave, and to
. e hi- hand shaken
by the other New
York officials.

The next day the
journey was resumed
at Jersey City, and

THE LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL

March, 1897

Mr. Lincoln greeted me like a long-lost friend, and
Mrs. Lincoln made room for me on the seat beside
her. The apparent inadequacy of this simple couple for
the dignities which they were approaching was rather
painful to observe ; but the observer was mistaken : the
inadequacy was only apparent. There was the customary
interrupted speech at the New Jersey stations, and at
New Brunswick, where I shook hands with my bovhood
and college friends, Mr. Lincoln turned to me anil play-
fully asked :

“ Is this your reception or mine? ”

When the matter was explained and Rutgers College
pointed out to him he remarked :

"Ah ! That is what I have always regretted— the want
of a college education. Those who have it should thank
God for it.”

APPREHENSION FOR THE PRESIDENT-ELECT'S SAFETY

PHILADELPHIA gave Mr. Lincoln a fine reception. It
was on Washington’s Birthday and the crowd made
holiday. But there had been a secret meeting of the
Government officials and the Republican leaders, and the
Presidential party went on to Harrisburg, ostensibly to
visit Governor Curtin. At Harrisburg another special
correspondent and myself occupied a large, double-
bedded room. We were very comfortable physically,
but uneasy mentally. A correspondent has an instinct
for news ; we fell that there was something going on
that we ought to know but did not. About midnight we
started to go to the telegraph office and ask if anything
important had happened anywhere.

The door of our room was locked !

Each suspected the other of playing some trick, and
after ringing the bell violently, pounding and kicking the
door, I went to a window and began to discuss the possi-
bility of climbing down from the third story. Just as we
were planning how to do this the locked door opened, a
short, thick-set man entered, relocked the door and said :
“ Very sorry, gentlemen, but you must not leave this
room to-night."

" Put away that revolver! Why mustn't we leave the
room? What's up ? Talk quickly ! "

The man had formerly been in the employ of the
Adams Express Company and was now a Secret Service
agent of the Government. His orders were to prevent
any report from being telegraphed from Harrisburg, and
lie insisted upon our paroles before he would talk to us.
At length he became amenable to reason and supper, and
agreed to tell us what had happened, but only upon con-
dition, however, that we would not telegraph it without
his permission.

LINCOLN'S SECRET JOURNEY TO WASHINGTON
T'HEN came the wonderful story. Mr. Lincoln had gone
1 to Washington by way of Philadelphia on a special
train, because General Scott feared that he would be
assassinated; Mrs. Lincoln had accompanied him, and the
rest of the party had been detained at Harrisburg. There
was no disguise of "a Scotch cap and long military
cloak" in the original story ; one of the correspondents
interpolated that. But to have such news and not be
able to send it to our papers in New York was, indeed,
almost maddening. The sentinel looked at his watch
and said gravely ;

“By this time Mr. Lincoln is in Washington or in
Heaven ! Now, gentlemen, I give you back your
paroles ! "

In a very few minutes we were at the telegraplv office,
and the next morning the whole country knew that the
President-elect had reached the nation's Capital in safety.

That there was any good reason for this midnight
journey has been often disputed, but no one who knew
the circumstances ever doubted its wisdom.

We took the first train that followed the Lincoln special,
and the journey was most exciting. Every jolt suggested
a bomb, every blast of the locomotive whistle an attack.
From every station we sent dispatches to New York.
But for the time the plotters of assassination were par-
alyzed, and we found Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln at Willard’s
Hotel, Washington, surrounded by a volunteer guard of
stem-faced Republicans who had come from all parts of
the country.

¥

"THE LONG AND SHORT OF THE PRESIDENCY"

THERE, on the following Monday, the introduction of the
1 President-elect to Washington society took place.
The hotel parlors were crowded with elegantly-dressed
ladies, and with gentlemen who had long held positions in
the official aristocracy, most of them secretly sympathizing
with secession and all curious to see “the rail-splitter,"
who had split the Southern States from the I'nion, " the
Western baboon,” as they politely designated him.
Presently, from a side door that suggested .a scene on the
stage, emerged the face of Mr. Lincoln, smiling nervously ;
then his tall, thin, awkward body ; then a long arm, and
finally, at the end of this arm, a dumpy little woman. He
was dressed in a new suit of shiny black that had been
presented to him as an advertisement by an enterprising
tailor. She was wrapped in a white shawl. Mr. Lincoln
looked at the fashionable assembly and said, in his clear,
distinct voice :

" Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to present to you
the long and short of the Presidency ! ”

As lie said "the long,” he bowed; as he said "the
short," he looked down at Mrs. Lincoln and smiled. A
shudder ran through the parlors. The ladies stared at
the strange couple ; the gentlemen bent their heads.
That man the President of the Lhiited States ! That
woman the first lady of the land ! All the etiquette of
the Republican court that had been established since the
days of President Washington was violated. Even we
Northerners, who stood sturdily and unfalteringly by the
new President, could not help recalling the words of
Senator Douglas.

Threats of assassination were in the air and Mr. Lincoln
was carefully guarded. The Capital was filling up with
Cromwelhans from New England and the West— resolute,
fighting men who were to take part in the inaugural pro-
cession that the secessionists were expected to attack.
On the morning of March 4 I called at Willard's Hotel
and found that Mr. Lincoln had risen at sunrise and was
revising his inaugural address, because Tom Corwin had
used some of its phrases in a speech delivered the day
before. His Cabinet had been announced in the morning
papers— Seward, Chase, Simon Cameron, Montgomery
Blair, the giants of those days.

THE FEAR OF ASSASSINATION IN EVERY MIND
AS I WALKED up to the Capitol the wide, dusty streets
. were already crowded. Regular troops were posted
at intervals along Pennsylvania Avenue. Sharpshooters
were climbing over the roofs of the houses. A mounted
officer at every corner was ready to report to General
Scott the passage of the procession. Detectives in plain
clothes squirmed through the masses of people. The
policemen had been instructed to arrest for "disorderly
conduct " any person who called Mr. Lincoln an oppro-
brious name or uttered a disloyal sentiment. There was
much suppressed excitement, and the prophetic word
" assassination " was in every mind.

President Buchanan, whose term expired at noon, was
engaged until half an hour later in signing the bills that
had been hurriedly passed, but the Congressional clock
had been put back to legalize the transaction. At last he
drove down to Willard's and the procession was formed.
The President and President-elect rode in an open
barouche ; but this confidence in the people was more-
apparent than real. On the front seat were Senators
Baker and Pearce; a guard of honor of the regular
cavalry surrounded the carriage; beyond were mounted
marshals four files deep. From the sidewalks no one
could accurately distinguish Mr. Lincoln. Close behind
marched regiments of regulars and marines, fully armed.
It seemed more like escorting a prisoner to his doom than
a President to his inauguration.

Straggling behind the military were veterans of the
Revolutionary War, of the War of 1S12, and of the
Mexican War, members of the Peace Congress, delegations
from the loyal States. There were only about seven hun-
dred of these delegates in line, and of these three hun-
dred came from New York to honor Secretary Seward.
Then came a division of colored volunteers, which was
greeted with whispered curses. Never before had colored
men been seen in a military procession, except as carriers
of water or of targets. There was a tableau car, drawn
by white horses and escorted by a company of Republican
Wide-awakes, and I noticed that the pretty girls who
represented the North and the South were quarreling
typically.

LITTLE CHEERING FOR THE PALE, ANXIOUS PRESIDENT-ELECT
I ITTLE cheering and no enthusiasm greeted the proces-
L sion. Every now and then an arrest for "disorderly
conduct" was quickly and quietly made in the crowd.
The sunshine was bright, but the whole affair was as
gloomy as if Mr. Lincoln were riding through an enemy's
country— as, indeed, he was. A trilling incident proved
this. A rumor ran from lip to lip that the Presidential
carriage had broken down, and only the prompt action of
the troops in pushing back the spectators prevented cheers
of triumph over this evil omen.

As they left the barouche at the steps of the Capitol,
Buchanan looked very grave, Lincoln pale and anxious,
and both were covered with dust. I entered the Senate
chamber with Hannibal Hamlin, the Vice-President-elect,
who had walked up from Willard's, and had noted the-
hostility of the spectators. The Senate chamber was
overcrowded ; many ladies had beert in the galleries since
midnight. Vice-President Breckinridge took charge of
Mr. Hamlin, and the new Vice-President assumed his
office with no more formality than the swearing of an
ordinary juror.

Meanwhile the President and the President-elect had
been refreshed; and Marshal French formed the procession
front the Senate chamber to the portico of the Capitol.
The platform was filled with officials and diplomats,
and about thirty thousand persons had assembled to
listen to the inaugural address. They were very quiet ;
not obtrusively hostile, but obviously unfriendly. The
shadow of civil war obscured the sunshine arid hung
like a pall over the proceedings. Senator Baker, of
Oregon, formally introduced Mr. Lincoln, who seemed
more tall, more gaunt, more ugly and more awkward
than ever as he fumbled in his pocket for his manuscript
and put on large, steel-rimmed spectacles. The crowd
jeered at him sot/o voce , and some said, "Look at old
goggles ! " A few more arrests for "disorderly conduct "
were promptly made by the officers, and a dead silence
ensued.

¥

THE CROWD UNMOVED BY THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS
MR- LINCOLN read his address slowly, distinctly, but
‘ ' 1 without any oratorical emphasis or gestures. As
soon as it became clear that he would maintain the Union
even by force of arms, the audience was indifferent.
There were no cheers and no cries of dissent. When he
had ended with those noble words: "We are not enemies,
but friends; we must not be enemies; though passion
may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affec-
tion ; the mystic chords of memory, stretching from
every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart
and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell
the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely
they will be, by the better angels of our nature" — there
was no response. Then Lincoln bowed his head as if in
silent prayer, sighed wearily as if lie knew that he had
failed to touch the Southern heart, and turned to Chief
Justice Taney to take the oath of office. The Chief Justice
trembled with age or with anxiety. Lincoln was the
eighth President to whom he had administered the oath,
and the Chief Justice, it was quite apparent, feared that
he would be the last.

Reentering the barouche, with Mr; Buchanan as his
guest, President Lincoln was escorted to the White House,
the procession now moving much more quickly than
before. He had recovered his spirits, and urged Mr.
Buchanan to “Come in and take something to wash the
dust from your throat," but Mr. Buchanan declined with
stately courtesy and at once withdrew to the residence of
District Attorney Child. During the White House dinner
President Lincoln was called from the table to deliver a
brief speech to the New York delegation, and at its con-
clusion lie said, with his usual humor: "I guess that
Seward ought to have made that speech."

At the Inauguration Ball, which was given at the City
Hall that evening, only about two thousand persons were
present. Mr. Buchanan did not attend. Washington
society had resolved to ignore the new President. It was
a sombre festivity, for already the lines between the North
and the South were sharply defined. The majority of
the guests were not in evening dress. The Republican
ladies did not care to dance. To those who had known
Washington in the old days the ball seemed very much
like a funeral.

THE PRESIDENT IN JOVIAL SPIRITS AT THE INAUGURATION BALL
\A/HEN the Presidential party entered the ballroom
* » Senator Douglas, faithful among the faithless, gal-
lantly gave his arm to Mrs. Lincoln. A few hours and a
good dressmaker had transformed that simple little
woman into quite a belle. She was tastefully attired in a
very becoming blue gown, and she carried a large fan
and an immense bouquet. She beckoned to me with the
hm, and gave me the Bouquet and the surprising informa-
tion : " We had flowers all over the table for dinner ! "
The President and Mrs. Lincoln did not dance, so an
impromptu reception was substituted for the court
quadrille, and almost every person was presented to Mr.
Lincoln and shook hands with him. He was in jovial
spirits, as full of fun as a boy. When he noticed me lie
made a wry face, pushed up his sleeves and said, ' This
hand-shaking is harder work than rail-splitting."

After the supper, when the ball had become more like
a dance, I handed Mrs. Lincoln her bouquet, and ven-
tured to congratulate the President upon his improve'1
health. « - * 1 ■ ■

r

■Yes,” he replied, looking at me significantly, "you
may tell him that Thurlow Weed has found out that
Seward was not nominated at Chicago ! ”

T his was very old news, another " Lincoln joke," and
I smiled and took my leave. Rut on my way to the tele-
iph office the joke assumed most serious proportions,
meant, on the authority of the President himself, that
Weed's secret intrigues to become the power behind the
Cabinet had been exposed and defeated ; that Chase was
to remain Secretary of the Treasury and master of the
situation ; that the sceptre of political power had passed
forever from New York and the South to the great West,
and that Lincoln was to be President in fact as well as in
name. So tremendous was the importance of this "joke "
that it crowded out for a day the description that I had
previously telegraphed of the costumes at the curious
ball which ended the first inauguration of President
Lincoln.

" When Lafayette Rode Into Philadelphia ••

<$> i\<> lV> tVi

A FAIR WOMAN’S FACE

By Helen - Earle

TIMMY DAWSON had finished his day's work — that is, In
J had spent the morning mending a net which lie hoped
to rent in the afternoon, and he had spent the afternoon
waiting for some one who had spoken of wanting his
tackle, as well as one of his dories. The day could not
be called a prosperous one. But what is prosperity ?
Jimmy had his cottage, his dories, a few precious books’—
the remnants of his college library, and of his brief life
in the world — the memory of his sainted mother, his
gentle, religious life, and his scorn of women in general.

He walked from his boat-house to his cottage, and
entered his small kitchen. Everything was in exquisite
order. A small looking-glass on one side of the room
reflected his long gray Beard and gray hair, and his gentle,
refined face. He had taken down a volume of Horace
when the door to his front room, or shop, opened, and he
hastened forward to see who the customer might be.
The small stock of stationery’ which he carried for the
village folk brought him an occasional visitor from the
hotel near by. He stepped back hastily. No, it cannot
be, yet so like, so like! Twenty odd summers ago a
woman's word had crushed tile ambitions of his youth,
and had sent him, a lonely recluse, to pass his lifuon the
rocks and under the pines where he first saw his love.

" I hear that you keep pens and pencils,” a gentle voice
was saying.

Jimmy roused himself and replied. His voice had a
singular, minor sweetness. The pens proved desirable.
What a face she had! A tumult of memories crowded
upon him. Hoping to detain his visitor longer he gave .1
few Florida beans, which he had received as cash from a
village bargainer, to the boy who had followed her. He
must look at her and hear her voice ; he would tell her
about himself ; she would understand. He showed a
rare old chair belonging to a set of four, in one of which
George Washington had sat ; he took out a letter written
by his great-grandfather. His visitor seemed interested,
spoke about his cozy cottage and the beauty of the region.

A great thought had been taking shape in Jimmy's
mind; it came out timidly! " I was about to have riiy
tea when you came in. Will you not stay, you and your
son, and sup with me? ”

She accepted in a gracious way. Overcome with joy
Jimmy drew out a spindle-legged iable, and arranged on
it the blue and white china that had not been used since
“dear mother" died. He was sorry that his beans were
cold and his brown bread hard, but he could make good
tea. 1-Ie kept glancing shyly toward his guest, who had
taken up a favorite volume of Whittier, and to her son
was reading softly "The Swan Song of Parson Avery,"
who met his death on the rocks along the lighthouse
ledge. Jimmy listened. Would the story which he was
about to tell, prove his last word, perhaps his swan song?
How sweet it all was ! He trembled.

The three sat down together, and Jimmy said a simple
grace. Conscious of a lack, he went to a chest of drawers
and took from it an apron, white, figured with delicate
blue. " It was dear mother's, but you may use it to
protect your dress. I am sorry that I have no napkin."

His soul was full of a strange content. After the
simple meal, and a dreamy, reminiscent talk in the
twilight, Jimmy watched his visitors depart. The waves,
cherished companions of many years, crooned their
rhythmical song ; the pine trees, too, murmured the old
story. In the gathering darkness Jimmy was again alone,
but he no longer hated all women.